With the House and Senate divided over whether to accept federal dollars to expand health insurance for poor Floridians, Senate budget chief Joe Negron said Tuesday that he is open to finding a middle ground.

Negron, R-Stuart, is scheduled to shepherd a proposal through a Senate budget subcommittee Wednesday that relies on federal money to reposition the Florida Healthy Kids program to accept $51 billion in federal aid over the next decade.

Negron wants to create a Healthy Florida program to cover the potential 1 million uninsured adults and children who could be eligible for coverage under the Medicaid expansion allowed states by the federal Affordable Care Act.

The House and Senate have both rejected the Medicaid expansion earlier sought by Gov. Rick Scott, but the governor, Senate leaders, and most health care advocates have since signed onto the Negron proposal.

The House, however, is rejecting the federal money. House Speaker Will Weatherford, R-Wesley Chapel, and his likely successor, Rep. Richard Corcoran, R-Land O’ Lakes, say the promise of a steady stream of federal dollars is unreliable.

Instead, House leaders are advancing a proposal that would cover only 115,000 low-income parents, children and disabled at a cost to state taxpayers of $237 million-a-year.

A similar Senate proposal by Sen. Aaron Bean, R-Fernandina Beach, also is expected to be reviewed by the Senate budget panel Wednesday.

“My goal is for people to have health insurance, with them paying part of these premiums,” Negron said. “I would prefer a premium assistance program along the lines of the Senate plan. But this process requires people of good will to enter into principled agreements with the other side.”

Negron said that some sort of “hybrid” proposal — incorporating portions of his plan and the House proposal — is the only approach that will fly this session.

“I think for any plan to succeed this session, it would have to have elements of the House and Senate plans in it,” Negron said.

Although federal Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius told states last December not to expect full federal funding with a partial expansion of Medicaid coverage, Negron said he felt federal officials will be ready to deal.

“I would think that the federal government would want the citizens of Florida to have private health insurance rather than show up at emergency rooms when it’s too late, frequently,” Negron said.

While the House plan would cover 115,000 and Negron’s approach would bring 1 million Floridians insurance coverage, the senator said it was still unknown how many the “hybrid” will insure.

Almost 4 million Floridians currently have no health insurance. Where will the hybrid land?

“Somewhere in between. It depends on where you draw the line,” Negron said.

On the eve of the start of the 2013 Legislature, Gov. Rick Scott was dealt a blow Monday when a House committee killed his push for Medicaid expansion.

In a party-line vote, 10 Republicans on the House’s committee on the Affordable Care Act, voted against expansion; five Democrats sided with the Republican governor, who recently dropped his longtime opposition to the measure, which is expected to make 1 million lower-income Floridians eligibile for Medicaid.

“What you saw today was theater of the absurd,” said Rep. Mark Pafford, D-West Palm Beach, following the vote.

House Republicans took turns at the microphone to question expansion, saying it put the state at risk for future costs and relied on funding from a federal government which is weathering a host of fiscal challenges. Rep. Richard Corcoran, R-Land O’ Lakes, at one point likened the state relying on federal assurances of fully paying costs for the first three years of expansion as similar to tthose offered investors in Bernie Madoff’s Wall Street schemes.

“You cannot rely on someone giving us money when they are borrowing 50-cents on the dollars,” Corcoran said.

The House action came only hours after a Senate committee postponed its scheduled hearing where there was the possibility of a vote on expansion. But committee chairman Joe Negron, R-Stuart,  raised hopes among many health care advocates by speaking generally about how Florida should make every effort to assure that Florida’s 4 million uninsured become eligible for some kind of health coverage.

The House vote likely sets the stage for a session-long fight over expansion. The politics have been complicated, with Scott getting clear support from Democrats long accustomed to opposing his policies, while Republicans are divided, at best.

Defying conservatives in his own party, Scott said he wants the Legislature to approve expanding Medicaid to 138 percent of the poverty level, a move which would make eligible almost 1 million Floridians.

Medicaid already serves 3.2 million people and absorbs almost one-third of the state’s $70 billion budget. But saying no to expansion just means Florida tax dollars will be spent in other states, supporters have said.

Under the expansion, the federal government would pay for 100 percent of the expansion until 2016, when states would start paying a 5 percent share that would gradually increase to a maximum of 10 percent of new costs by 2020.

Estimates vary, but analysts have said Medicaid expansion could bring Florida $26 billion in federal dollars over the next decade. Florida taxpayers are expected to pay $3 billion during that period, according to the state’s Agency for Health Care Administration.

(more…)

Following a partisan skirmish, the Republican-ruled House agreed Wednesday to expand the state’s corporate tax credit scholarship program, with Democrats decrying the move for pulling dollars from the state treasury which could go to public schools.

Businesses get a dollar-for-dollar tax credit for donating to the program, which began in 2001 as a centerpiece of then-Gov. Jeb Bush’s push toward giving parents private school options to leave troubled public schools.

The program began by setting aside $50 million for tax credits. But the measure approved Wednesday would expand the amount available for credits to $229 million next year.

Legislation approved two years ago set in motion a sliding scale that would allow the cap to climb to $219 this year. But Democrats fiercely fought the proposed increase, which still needs to clear the Senate.

“This bill is about private schools,” said Rep. Franklin Sands, D-Weston. “Please don’t take any more money out of public schools.”

The tax credit increase comes as lawmakers set aside an additional $1 billion increase in public school spending. But critics have cautioned that the boost fails to cover the $1.3 billion reduction in school spending approved last year by Gov. Rick Scott and the Legislature.

Last year’s cut brought per-pupil spending to its lowest level in six years.

But the House sponsor of the measure (CS/HB 859), Rep. Richard Corcoran, R-New Port Richey, said the tax money helps students leave “failing schools.” He rattled off state Education Department statistics that suggest student performance improves when they move to private schools.

Rep. Dennis Baxley, R-Ocala, said the scholarship money is a ”lifesaver” to low-income students and their families. He also lashed out at Democratic opponents.

“These kids are stuck. Condemned. And you wouldn’t even send them a lifesaver?” Baxley said.

As of November 2011, there were 1,181 schools participating in the program and scholarships were awarded to 37,578 students, records show. The scholarship amount per-student is about two-thirds what the state spends on public school students.

The corporate tax program has long proved controversial. The Palm Beach Post reported in the program’s early years that questionable organizations and storefront schools were getting scholarship money, prompting state officials to more closely monitor participating schools and collect more data on how they were using those dollars.

Students in private schools are exempt from such public school testing programs as the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT). But the measure authorizes participating schools to administer state assessment tests, ordering public school districts to provide the material and whatever support the private schools need.